As much as we loved New York City it was time to move on with the trip. We had to drive Monica over the Tappen Zee Bridge, so we didn't want to do that in rush hour traffic and left after 9am. When we went to pay the toll and found out that it was $22.50 to cross the bridge we wondered why it was so much. Really, it is a nice bridge and all but $22.50? Are you kidding me? Ellen had to catch her breath!!! It just so happens that we were still traveling during what they consider to be rush hour and what is normally a $10 toll becomes a $22.50 for trucks. Who knew we could of made $10 just by sleeping another hour, something that I don't think any of us would have minded.Anyway, today was the day we were in search of Nana and Papa's houses where they grew up, etc. So we headed towards Hartford Connecticut. We passed Hartford and went on to Enfield where a lot of Papa's family resided. We didn't have much luck finding much of anything, not that we tried too hard. But we were reminded that we needed a key chain before we left the state

. That was only 15 miles and we were not in a tourist area at all. Ellen hoped into the PT and took Audrey to everywhere they could possibly find looking for the blessed key chain. We finally threw in the towel and went into a Target and got a key chain that we decided we would write Connecticut on......Pink Panther.

Then we made our way to East St. in Springfield, MA. This is where Nana's father (Ellen's grandfather) lived out the last of his years. Ellen had even been there when she was in college and recognized it all, except the house! St. Mary's church on the corner, the two streets that merge, a pretty busy street (that has become even busier - a dbl yellow line) but the house was wrong. It was a small single story house with a large pane window our front. This was not the house. She called home and they confirmed they address. HMMMM?

Moving on towards the coast we decided to stay in an area called Monson. Clark ran into the town of Monson for groceries and was delighted by the quaint, classic un- heard-of diamond in the rough; Monson. We may never tire of 200 year old communities considering Colorado hadn't even really been discovered yet. It had the churches, graveyards, main street store fronts, wooden signs, large grand homes you would expect in New England. It is so refreshing to see economically healthy small towns undisturbed by big box stores and chain restaurants. In the midwest and rocky mountain west, it seems that they're boom or bust.

We stayed at a lovely campground where the kids enjoyed riding their bikes through the wooded areas and around the ponds. We grilled and had a campfire or tried our best. The wood just kept getting wetter and wetter and wouldn't stay lit. We roasted marsh mellows and made smores on the burning paper. A nice way to end the evening.